Influence of organic dopants (L-alanine and L-arginine) on structural, spectroscopic and thermal properties of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate crystal

Ammonium dihydrogen phosphate is a popular nonlinear optical crystal used for second harmonic generation efficiency improvement in pump lasers. Due to molecular chirality and zwitterionic structure, amino acids are used to enhance various properties of ADP crystal. The single crystals of ammonium dihydrogen phosphate (ADP) added with different concentrations (0.3 wt.%, 0.4 wt.% and 0.5 wt.%) of amino acids (L-alanine and L-arginine) impurities were grown using slow evaporation solution growth (SESG) technique at room temperature. To study the structural properties, powder XRD study was carried out which revealed that all the grown crystals have tetragonal structural symmetry. The presence of various functional groups was confirmed using FT-IR spectroscopy. The thermal spectra (TGA/DTA/DSC) were recorded for all grown samples to determine their decomposition. Also kinetic and thermodynamic parameters were determined from the thermal study.